Digestive Disorders

Chronic Abdominal Pain and Fatigue

07/14/2011

Question:

Should I seek further medical advice for my 16 yr old son who has had constant abdominal pain and extreme fatigue for over 3 weeks? He was diagnosed with Spondyloarthropathy about 1 1/2 yrs ago. They were part of his symptoms when diagnosed but not to this extreme. He is eating and has no diarhea.He did have relief for 3 months after starting Humira,which was this past Aug. After his diagnose he had upper & lower scopes and an MRI and found nothing. One doctor said he was constipated, even though my son said he`s not. Then yesterday a different doctor thought maybe he has CFS and started him on Zoloft for the fatigue. CBC, Thyroid, CRP are normal. The pain is upper mid gastric area and in the past the pain was located around the navel area. He has not been in school for three weeks and I`m not convinced it is CFS.

Answer:

I would definitely seek further advice. I am not convinced this is a GI problem but it sounds serious enough to be investigated further. Humira would treat Crohn's disease which is what the docs were looking for with the scopes but it appears that was not detected.

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